Best petanque sets

Hold a recreational set against that table and the gap is obvious: almost none of them publish a diameter or a weight. That is not automatically disqualifying — a backyard game does not need competition-legal boules — but it does mean you cannot know what you are buying, which is the whole reason this site exists.

Idle Banter Boules, 8 x 73 mm — best published spec

The only set here that publishes a ball diameter, and at 73 mm it sits inside the FIPJP legal range rather than near it. Eight boules and a case is the full four-player game in one object. It still does not publish weight, so competition legality is half answered rather than answered.

WodGod 8-boule stainless set — best complete set

Eight steel boules, a jack, a case and — the part we like — a measuring string. Petanque ends in a measured centimeter more often than any other game on this site, and a set without a measure is a set that ends in arguments.

WodGod 6-boule set — for two or three players

The same set one size down. Six boules covers singles and triples; it cannot make the four-player doubles game, where each of four players throws two.

Hey! Play! 10-piece — the cheapest way in

From the same maker as the ten-pin set we rate for children in outdoor bowling sets. It publishes a piece count and a color and nothing else, which is the trade for the price.

1. Published ball size. The FIPJP publishes a range; a set that names its diameter can be checked against it.
2. Eight boules, not six. Eight is the four-player game.
3. A measure in the box. Steel on gravel produces close calls constantly.
4. A case. Eight steel balls loose in a shed is how sets get lost.

Petanque is the one game on this site where the ground is equipment. A terrain is not a lawn with the grass removed — it is a shallow, compacted, drained surface that lets a thrown boule bite instead of bouncing.

The FIPJP asks for at least 15 m by 4 m for championship play, but the number that governs a backyard is the throw: the jack travels 6 to 10 m, so a strip of about 12 m by 3 m plays the real game with room to stand behind the circle.

• Surface: compacted crushed stone or decomposed granite, topped with a thin layer of finer gravel. Loose deep gravel swallows boules; bare hardpack makes them skid.
• Edges: a timber or steel edge stops the surface migrating into the lawn and gives you a visible boundary without marking one.
• Drainage: a slight crown sheds water. A terrain that holds puddles turns to mud and stays unplayable for days.
• The circle: nothing permanent. A prefabricated 50 cm ring is the rulebook's own answer and it lifts out for mowing season.

If that sounds like more groundwork than you want, it is — and it is exactly why bocce is the better buy for a household that only has grass. The permanent-installation question in general is covered in setting up a permanent games area.

Games go to 13, the jack is thrown 6 to 10 meters, and the team that is not closest keeps throwing — which is the rule almost every new group gets backwards. The full sequence is in how to play petanque.